Friday, December 29, 2006

The haggard Rocksun led us to another chamber within the spaceship. There Queen Galacta, Private Hudson, and I saw computer stations and readouts. But there was something else in there that caught our collective eyes.

“Unbelievable,” I stared in wonder.

“It is her,” The Queen added.

Hudson whistled. “She’s purty.”

Housed within some sort of a stasis tube was some sort of a woman – obviously she was in suspended animation. She seemed so serene in her sleep, sort of an angelic quality.

“So she was calling to you, your Majesty?” I asked the Queen.

“Yes,” she replied. “I am sure of it now.”

“So can we revive her?” I asked. “Anything around here got an off button?”

“That’s a negative,” Rocksun answered. “I have a couple technicians here who’ve combed over this entire room. They haven’t been able to find anything here that would help us with her. It’s as if she’s destined to be stuck in stasis forever.”

“Too bad,” Hudson mumbled.

The four of us stood there for a moment in the silence looking up at the hibernating woman.

Without warning, the woman’s eyes snapped open. Amber lights on the consoles in the room began to blink off as green lights flickered to life. With a hiss of escaping gas and a low mechanical groan, the stasis tube slid open.

Rocksun quickly stepped forward to steady the woman as she started to slump out.

“Th-thank you,” she said weakly. “Thank you all for helping me out of there. Just give me a moment to regain my strength.”

“We are happy to help you,” the Queen stated. “I am Galacta IX, Queen of the Galaxy and these are My men, Major Rocksun, Private Hudson, and Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator. Can you tell us your name and where you are from?”

“I am Eve,” she replied. “I am a Terran Ghost, I was sent by the Confederacy on a desperate mission to stop the Zerg. I was put in suspended animation for the journey until it was time to deploy and initiate the plan. It was a huge fleet, we were to battle our way to Char and and destroy the Zerg Cerebrate there. I don’t know what else happened after I was sealed in that tube.”

“We do not recognize much of what you are saying,” The Queen said back to Eve. “These Zerg and this Confederacy are not familiar to us at all.”

“Well it is what it is,” Eve snapped back. “I can’t explain what I don’t know. But maybe…”

The Ghost started punching up buttons on a control panel.

“Looks like however I got here damaged much of the ship’s systems. But I think I can call up the logs.”

The screen flared up and displayed the logs. It showed the battle fleet engaging a Zerg swarm over a planet. After a long battle, a rift in space opened up and many Zerg as well as the ship we were in were pulled through. The creatures and the craft exited the warp over Throneworld and plummeted into the planet’s atmosphere. Many of the Zerg survived the reentry, but the last image was that of the ship crashing through the rocks of a canyon.

“So that’s it,” Eve said sadly. “I’m stranded almost 500 years in the past. I am on a planet infested by Zerg and I have no way to get home. What can I do?”

“I’ll tell you what you can do,” Rocksun answered gruffly. “You can help us kick these damn things off our planet once and for all. You got some kind of bug-killing super weapon or something?”

“No,” she shook her head. “But we do have six nuclear missiles. The plan was to get onto Char and establish a base, then get Ghosts like me to light up the Zerg structures with lasers for nuclear strikes. We would blast our way to the Cerebrate and destroy it.”

“If these nukes still work, we can do the same thing,” Hudson announced happily.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to let you out there alone,” Rocksun interceded. “All those creatures, it’s just too dangerous.”

“Thank you for your concern, but I can take care of myself,” Eve answered then she disappeared right before our eyes.

“Wha--?” Hudson’s jaw dropped.

“Where did you go?” I asked. I must admit that my jaw must have dropped as well.

“Why do you think they call me a Ghost?” Eve chuckled as she reappeared. “Though the Zerg do have ways to detect us, we can avoid them and move unseen through areas infected by their presence.”

“That is an amazing ability,” the Queen commented. “We would be honored if you would help us eliminate this Zerg threat.”

“Oh, I would love to do it,” Eve answered. “Believe me.”

“OK, so it’s settled,” I said. “Let’s check those nukes and get them going.”

“One more thing.” Eve walked over to Hudson and slapped him hard across the face. “You do not think those thoughts around me. I am a lady.”